Seeing Red
by Faith Everdeen
Summary: Maximum Ride, Halfway between the books Max and Fang. A random trip to a museum for the flock causes the return of the Red-Haired wonder - called Lissa. Who knew? -, who misses Fang and decides to stalk him. Lissa'a POV. QUITE FUNNY/FLUFFY.


**Seeing Red**

Written to 'Doesn't mean anything' by Alicia Keyes, about a random trip the flock take after Max.

Ugh. Museums were always boring. I rested my head against a big glass tank. Why had I come? To see three thousand, two hundred and sixty four different animal skeletons? Yeah. Right.

"Why the long face, Lissa?" A mocking voice broke through my cloud of gloom. I looked up. Oh, God. It was Sam. _That_ was the reason I had come. And he hadn't even spoken to me. Until now. I smiled sweetly.

"Museums? Ugh, anybody?" I laughed delicately.

He wrinkled his nose. I hated it when he did that. Nick had never done that. But he wasn't here. So second best would have to do.

"You ever wanna escape? Like, now?" He grinned at me.

"Sure!" I replied, trying to sound confident. What the heck was he going to do? His hand broke through my internal shrieking, snaking it's way into mine.

I managed to squeak an "Oh!" in response. He pulled me under a thick red rope and up the steps towards the main bit of the museum, open to the public.

I giggled. Nobody could see us up here. Crammed on a tiny balcony, looking down on everyone else in the big domed hall. Everyone meaning an old woman, a middle-aged man and a group of kids in the corner. Very familiar kids, come to think of it. I squinted. Could it be? No. Never. But……

I glanced at Sam. He was busy flicking paper pellets at the woman. How immature. I looked back at the kids. The tall one did look like Nick. Or was I just getting carried away? He broke free from the group, his back to me. I sighed in frustration, then focused again. Another figure had separated from them and was walking towards him. I couldn't tell, but it did look like a girl. She came more into focus, and I could see that I was right. And there had been an older, taller girl, hadn't there? Nick's sister. I watched, _horrified_, as she grabbed his hands and playfully shoved him against a tank, squishing herself to him. She smiled up at him, laughing. He grinned down, then leaned and kissed her. The old woman looked positively outraged. OMG. It _was_ Nick. With that sister of his- what was it- Maxine? EEEEEWW!!!!!!!!!

A tiny little blonde girl walked up to them, smirking. She bossily herded on the remaining three, shooing them towards the next exhibit. With one final smug glance behind her, she followed them, leaving Maxine and Nick in their little bubble of yuckiness. There had been a baby kid too, hadn't there? …Whatever she had been called… The bobbing blonde head of curls suddenly stopped, whirling around faster than I could blink. She stared right at me, frowning slightly. How had she known we were here? No-one would ever crane their neck to look that high, unless to look at the ceiling, which definitely kept it's place in the category 'unspectacular'. She tilted her head to the side, still staring. I stared right back. Her eyes widened, and she scuttled off to join her group. Ha. That had showed her. But I still had a bad feeling about the whole thing. I grabbed Sam's wrist, to much complaint, and dragged him back to the stairs, then descended as fast as I could drag a fourteen-year-old the weight of a potato sack.

"Come On!!!!!" I screamed at him. He grabbed my shoulders and swung me around.

"What the hell, Lissa? What are you doing!?!" He started shaking me vigorously. I wriggled free from his grasp.

"Umm…I needed the toilet?" I grimaced at him. He stepped away from me, his expression disgusted, and walked off. I groaned. I had just ruined _everything_.

But I was still going to find out what the heck was going on with the inbreeding family over there.

I strode down the corridor, straight into the room adjoining the hall. I stood there for a minute, unsure what to do, until the blonde midget walked in with possibly the ugliest dog I had ever seen tucked into the waistband of her pants. _Her pants_. I ducked behind one of the bazillions of glass-topped cabinets. They dispersed themselves around the room in twos, looking around like they were searching for some threat. Nick and his scary little girlfriend started walking towards me slowly, holding hands, while some frizzy-haired freak and Blondie went in the opposite direction, in deep conversation. Come to think of it, I did remember a sister of theirs who had hair problems. The remaining pair consisted of two guys, one who looked like Blondie's twin, and a ginger beanpole. I diverted my attention back to Nick. Oh, jeez! He (and that 'sister' of his) was on the other side of the cabinet. I could hear their every word.

"Why are we here, again?" Maxine wondered aloud. Nick smiled.

"Angel?" He replied, raising his eyebrows. "Bambi eyes?"

He had never looked at me like that. But , then again, I had no idea what they were on about. Angel? Bambi?

Disturbing Maxine, meanwhile, was laughing quietly.

"You are such a sucker for her tricks." she told him teasingly.

"True," he murmured, bending down to kiss her again. Again!!!!!! What was up with them!?! I breathed in deeply, trying to calm myself the way the psychiatrist had told me to, inhaling a few tons of dust on the way. I tried to choke silently, eyes watering madly. I quietly coughed up couple of billions of dust particles-saliva covered- onto the floor. I took a shallow breath, only to-to my horror- kick off a sneezing fit. Between sneezes I heard the abrupt end of their kiss, and squidged my eyes shut, fearing the worst.

The sneezing finally ended, leaving me lying on the floor breathless, eyes still clamped shut. I gradually became aware of the breathing of six or seven people around me I stayed completely still. A sickeningly sweet, girly voice cut through the silence.

"She knows we're here." The voice took on an amused tone. "She's playing dead." A sterner, stronger, yet still feminine voice answered her statement.

"How did you not know she was here? Angel? Ig?"

"I did." The smug, sweet voice was back. "I even saw her in the Great Hall. But she's not a threat." The other voice cut back at her.

"How could you know that? And what about you, Iggy?" There was a short silence, followed by a throat being cleared.

"Umm.. well I thought it might be Total. You know, the scuffling around…" He trailed off. This voice was definitely male, with the kind of pitch you get when your voice broke. I had witnessed this happening to guys a hundred times. A strangely high pitched, deeply indignant voice cut through his trailing off.

"How dare you! Me! Scuffling! I am not an animal, you know. Well, I am, but I do have manners! I do understand the etiquette rules for being in public, you know!" Sweet and Girly (probably, I decided, Blondie), of course, was right there comforting him.

"Sshhh, Total, baby, Sshhh. It's ok. He didn't mean it."

Another voice spoke up. Feminine, again, and also strong, as if it was used to it's full potential on a daily basis. Which meant it was Miss Bad Hair Day.

"Do we even know who it is?" She asked, almost timidly.

A calm, strong, definitely male voice answered. Nick!

"Lissa."

"Fang? You know her?" Blondie had decided to take charge of things, apparently. And who was Fang?

It was Maxine, sounding more than just a little annoyed.

"_Knew_ her. When we were at Anne's. The Red-Haired Wonder."

"Ohh." Blondie giggled.

"The Red Haired Wonder?" Asked a slightly amused-sounding Nick.

Were they talking about _me_?

"Tell you later," Blondie murmured happily to him. "But Max, don't worry, she will _never_ be a threat."

"Oh I know. I won't let her. But I wouldn't mind a chance to…"

"Show her who's boss?" Blondie supplied for her, sounding overly enthusiastic.

"Could we get back to the current situation please?" An even more amused- and even smug?- sounding Nick broke into their little speculation.

"Why is she here?" Demanded Miss BHD.

"Coincidentally, originally." Blondie got businesslike. "She came to make out with your ex, then saw you and Fang and got a little…"

"Curious?" Someone asked.

"Disgusted." She decided.

"My ex????" Maxine asked, sounding annoyed.

"Her ex????" Nick asked, sounding even more annoyed.

"Sam." Blondie told them. "They kind of went out, you have to admit. Like you and The Red- Haired wonder, here. Which is why she was stalking you."

"You should probably stop calling her that" Miss BHD cut in. "She_ can_ here you."

"Who cares?" Blondie laughed. She was having _way_ too much fun. I decided to intervene. I opened my eyes.

"_I_ care." I told her angrily.

"So?" She said. "One against seven."

Seven?

"That's with the dog." Her voice took on a patronising tone.

How did she know I was thinking that?

"I can read minds, stupid." She smiled a big, scarily sweet smile.

"Ok, Ange, No spilling secrets to strangers, and – Shall we call you RHW?-You can shut up." Maxine glared at me.

"Firstly, In future, would you not stalk us? It's a bit weird. Secondly, Fang, or Nick as you might know him, I never going to have anything to do with you ever again. Ever." She added menacingly. " Oh, and third, you can have Sam. I really don't care."

She started to stalk off, but Nick- Fang, even- grabbed her wrist.

"Wait." Maxine's eyes widened. He smiled at her, then turned to me. "I'm sorry Lissa. But I do kind of love Max."

"Kind of" Max muttered, pulling a face. He grinned.

"Ok, forget the kind of."

"So…please don't stalk me again?" He smiled patronisingly at me.

Max smiled almost tenderly at me, then _definitely_ tenderly at Fang. Eugh.

"Up and away when you're ready, guys" She told them, before slipping her hand into Fang's. "And Angel? Don't forget to tidy up."

My mouth fell open as, synchronised, they both sprang up, unfurling _wings_, and _flew_ through the skylight.

"Umm..so bye, then" Miss BHD was looking at me uncertainly. She trapped the ginger one- probably with the breaking voice- and he half waved at me, before following the others- leaping up and flying through the roof. Hey! Wasn't that guy blind!?! I looked to Blondie.

"Yes, but he's also very clever." She answered my thought.

Her and her twin (and dog) were the only ones left now.

"Ready, Gazzy?" She asked him, not taking her eyes off me. It was only when he straightened up that I realised he'd been fiddling with something on the side of a cabinet. The security box. I looked again, to his sister.

She smiled at me, and I felt a strange feeling of ease was over me. Then the bomb went off.

I sat up in the deserted room, trying to work out what I was doing here.


End file.
